Search

This article reports the results of a systematic review on displaced and refugee-background students' transitioning and (re-)integration into European higher education (HE). A total of 7082 studies have been assessed for eligibility in six languages. Forty-four empirical studies conducted in 14 countries of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) between 2014 and 2021 met the inclusion criteria. Evidence from these studies has been extracted, appraised for quality, and synthesised to advance our understanding of how best to support refugee-background students' HE aspirations. The main contribution of this article is a comprehensive review of support measures and recommendations in nine key areas that were identified as having particular relevance for successful HE participation: recognition of qualifications, entry requirements, reach and relevance of educational offer, costs, precarity and vulnerability, language, transitioning and skills mismatch, resource poverty, and (un)welcoming environments. The reviewed evidence is relevant in varying degrees to higher education institutions across the EHEA and can inform the delivery of targeted responses to refugee-background students' needs on both HE entry and throughout their educational journey. The article also exposes important knowledge gaps that should be prioritised in future research and highlights some common lessons regarding cross-sector collaboration, long-term planning and support, and the need for a continuous monitoring of student pathways. A novel aspect of this systematic review is also its multilingual search strategy which was designed to correct for the geographical bias toward research produced in Anglophone countries which is often a by-product of English-only search strategies in education research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has established that the success of strikes, and social movements more broadly, depends on their ability to garner support from the public. However, there is scant published research investigating the response of the public to strike action by healthcare workers. In this study, we address this gap through a study of public responses to UK nursing strikes in 2022–2023, using a data set drawn from Twitter of more than 2300 publicly available tweets. We focus on negative tweets, investigating which societal discourses social media users draw on to oppose strike action by nurses. Using a combination of corpus‐based approaches and discourse analysis, we identified five categories of opposition: (i) discourse discrediting nurses; (ii) discourse discrediting strikes by nurses; (iii) discourse on the National Health System; (iv) discourse about the fairness of strikers' demands and (v) discourse about potential harmful impact. Our findings show how social media users operationalise wider societal discourses about the nursing profession (e.g., associations with care, gender, vocation and sacrifice) as well as recent crises such as the Covid‐19 pandemic to justify their opposition. The results also provide valuable insights into misconceptions about nursing, strike action and patient harm, which can inform strategies for public communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution examines how the diverse language resources that teachers and learners bring to the classroom can support the process of language learning. It draws on a range of linguistic ethnographic data collected at a French language course that was attended mostly by Syrian and Iraqi refugees in Luxembourg. Drawing on the analysis of multilingual interactional practices, the article sheds light on some of the opportunities for learning that emerged as a result of translation, translanguaging and receptive multilingualism. It discusses the relevance of these practices for building a repertoire of resources that enables forced migrants to communicate in multilingual contexts such as Luxembourg.

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a renewed interest in intergenerational letter and email writing. Evidence shows that expressive writing, including letter writing, has a number of benefits including improved literacy and perceived well-being, and it can also facilitate a deep connection with another person. This scoping review provides an overview of the existing research on letter and email writing between different age cohorts. Of the 471 articles retrieved from Scopus, CINAHL, PsycINFO, MEDLINE, Academic Search Premier, and Web of Science, 17 studies met the inclusion criteria and were critically appraised and synthesized in this review. The studies were grouped into two themes according to their stated aims and outcomes: (a) studies exploring changes in perceptions, and (b) studies relating to skills development and bonds. The results showed a range of benefits for intergenerational letter writers, from more positive perceptions of the other age group, through improved writing skills and subject knowledge, to forming intergenerational memories and bonds. The review also highlights some of the limitations of the current research and formulates recommendations for future studies in the fields of writing studies, intergenerational research, and educational gerontology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has been widely documented. While deaths are now in the millions and many more have been impacted in other ways, the impact of Covid-19 has not been felt equally, with it exacerbating existing inequalities and disproportionately impacting a number of populations. With this Covid-19 has created unprecedented challenges in relation to health communication, with the need to reach disadvantaged populations. This systematic scoping review sought to 1) synthesize the existing research regarding communication inequalities in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and 2) analyze the recommendations that emerge from this body of evidence on how to best address these inequalities. This review includes 40 studies that fell into three broad groups (1) those revealing a disadvantage or inequality in studies of general population; (2) those focussing on communication with sub-groups disproportionately affected by the pandemic; and (3) those reporting and evaluating practical attempts to address inequalities. The results largely corroborate those found in past pandemics, highlighting the role of sociodemographic, cultural/religious, and economic factors in facilitating/jeopardizing the public's capacity to access and act upon public health messaging. In a number of studies it was encouraging to see recommendations from the literature – particularly, lessons learnt on the importance of community partnerships, trusted messengers and the co-creation of health and risk messages – being applied, however many challenges remain unmet. Covid-19 has also highlighted the need to actively tackle misinformation, something which was recognized, but largely unaddressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ethical climate refers to the shared perception of ethical norms and sets the scope for what is ethical and acceptable behaviour within teams. Aim: This paper sought to explore perceptions of ethical climate amongst healthcare workers as measured by the Ethical Climate Questionnaire (ECQ), the Hospital Ethical Climate Survey (HECS) and the Ethics Environment Questionnaire (EEQ). Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis was utilised. PSYCINFO, CINAHL, WEB OF SCIENCE, MEDLINE and EMBASE were searched, and papers were included if they sampled healthcare workers and used the ECQ, HECS or EEQ. Ethical consideration: Ethical approval was not required. Results: The search returned 1020 results. After screening, 61 papers were included (n = 43 HECS, n = 15 ECQ, n = 3 EEQ). The overall sample size was over 17,000. The pooled mean score for the HECS was 3.60. Mean scores of individual studies ranged from 2.97 to 4.5. For the HECS studies, meta-regression was carried out. No relationship was found between the country of the studies, the study setting (ICU v non-ICU settings) or the mean years of experience that the sample had. For the ECQ, sub-scales had mean scores ranging from 3.41 (instrumental) to 4.34 (law) and were all observed to have significant and substantial heterogeneity. Three studies utilised the EEQ so further analysis was not carried out. Conclusions: The above results provide insight into the variability of scores as measured by the HECS, ECQ and EEQ. To some extent, this variability is not surprising with studies carried out across 21 countries and in a range of healthcare systems. Results also suggest that it may be that more local and context specific factors are more important when it comes to predicting ethical climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the outbreak of Covid-19 health communicators around the globe have had to reach, urge, and persuade individuals and communities to adopt appropriate health protective behaviors. They have used a mix of communication channels, including outdoor media and public signage which are the focus of this paper. Drawing on a comparative linguistic landscape analysis, this paper critically examined the amount, content, and prominence of Covid-19 signage in Hackney, a London borough severely hit by the first wave of the pandemic. Having analyzed 1288 signs collected between May and July 2020, we found significant differences in Covid-19 signage between deprived and less deprived areas. These differences (e.g., in messaging about staying at home) have created inequalities in access to Covid-19 related health information and guidance. We also explored the changes in Covid-19 signage over time and the tailoring of risk and health messages to minority communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study sought to evaluate the impact of health care strike action on patient mortality.Data Sources: EMBASE, PubMed CINAHL, BIOETHICSLINE, EconLit, WEB OF SCIENCE, and grey literature were searched up to December 2021.Study Design: A systematic review and meta-analysis were utilized.Data Collection/extraction: Random-effects meta-analysis was used to compare mortality rate during strike versus pre- or post-strike, with meta-regression employed to identify factors that might influence the potential impact of strike action. Studies were included if they were observational studies that examined in-hospital/clinic or population mortality during a strike period compared with a control period where there was no strike action.Principal Findings: Seventeen studies examined mortality: 14 examined in-hospital mortality and three examined population mortality. In-hospital studies represented 768,918 admissions and 7191 deaths during strike action and 1,034,437 admissions and 12,676 deaths during control periods. The pooled relative risk (RR) of in-hospital mortality did not significantly differ during strike action versus non-strike periods (RR = 0.91, 95% confidence interval 0.63, 1.31, p = 0.598). Meta-regression also showed that mortality RR was not significantly impacted by country (p = 0.98), profession on strike (p = 0.32 for multiple professions, p = 0.80 for nurses), the duration of the strike (p = 0.26), or whether multiple facilities were on strike (p = 0.55). Only three studies that examined population mortality met the inclusion criteria; therefore, further analysis was not conducted. However, it is noteworthy that none of these studies reported a significant increase in population mortality attributable to strike action.Conclusions: Based on the data available, this review did not find any evidence that strike action has any significant impact on in-hospital patient mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: This study examines 3 years of child and adolescent health data from Australian onshore and offshore immigration detention centres from 2014 to 2017, quantifying the health presentation data of children and adolescents in Australian immigration detention and comparing rates between onshore and offshore detention. Methods: This study utilised the Quarterly Immigration Detention Health Reports over a period of 3 years. To compare onshore and offshore datasets, we calculated the rate of health events per quarter against the estimated quarterly onshore and offshore detention population of children. We ran a series of two‐proportion z‐tests for each matched quarter to calculate median z and P values for all quarters. These were used as an indicator as to whether the observed differences between onshore and offshore events were statistically significant. Results: The estimated number of children detained per quarter onshore ranged from 700 in 2014 (quarter 3) to 13 in 2016 (quarters 3 and 4); the estimated quarterly population of children in offshore detention ranged from 186 in 2014 (quarter 3) to 42 in 2017 (quarter 2). Children offshore had significantly higher rates of consultations with a mental health nurse (z = −1.96; P = 0.002), psychologist (z = −2.32; P = 0.01) and counsellor (z = −3.41; P < 0.001). As for reasons for presentation to general practitioners and psychiatrists, complaints related to skin (z = −1.97; P = 0.05), respiratory issues (z = −1.96; P = 0.05) and urological issues (z = −2.21; P = 0.03) were significantly higher amongst children detained offshore. Conclusions: Compared to children in the Australian community, children detained both onshore and offshore had greater health needs. Children offshore also presented more frequently with a range of complaints and accessed health services at higher rates than children detained onshore; this adds to growing evidence about the harms of offshore detention and detention more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides one of the first inquiries into the interactional dynamics of an interpreter-mediated research encounter. All spoken interactions – that is, originals and real-time translations produced in a multilingual interview conducted with a Syrian refugee – were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim using conversation analysis notation, retranslated and collaboratively analysed from three major perspectives: common language, equivalence, and loss and gain in translation. A stimulated recall interview, field notes and audio-recorded work sessions documenting our interpretative practices complement the data. Fixing our analytical gaze on the minute details of language use across English–Arabic allowed for a novel inquiry into specific moments of meaning making, role performances and rapport building in qualitative interviewing. Our examples illustrate how an agreed-on sense of the source meaning is established not only during the interview itself, but also at the point of its multilingual representation and analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the role of language ideologies in the linguistic integration of forced migrants. It discusses the findings of an ethnographic exploration that was conducted in Luxembourg with five individuals who sought refuge there. A network of teachers and institutional representatives constituted the secondary pool of research participants. Through analysis of metalinguistic discourse and narrative episodes, the paper scrutinises the instrumental and integrative dimensions of language. In particular, it draws attention to and problematises the hegemonic ideologies that inform linguistic integration. By bringing into focus multilingual realities and mobile aspirations, this research seeks to provide a new impetus to the reconceptualisation of integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]